more public transport whinging
Sep. 23rd, 2008 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccFriday I went home by bus. This should have taken me at most about 1.5 hours. Which is only 20 mins longer than the average train/tram trip (give or take waiting periods - I seem to be making a habit of arriving at Flinders St just in time to see the train pulling out.)
The first bus trip was great. I caught it with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tra4ce, who got off at Richmond station, but I continued on to the end of the line. Not least because it was the last day of school before holidays the trip was fantastic and quicker than I expected.
The second bus trip though... was interesting.
I crossed across to the bus stop on Plenty Rd. Unfortunately I didn't realise that there were two routes who used this stop. So I caught the bus marked with the suburb next to mine. Which I though was the bus I wanted, which goes through my suburb to that suburb. Unfortunately it wasn't. The bus I wanted actually goes to a Far Distant Suburb, via mine and the neighbouring suburb. *sigh* It's one digit different in number, so I didn't pick it up from that either.
I realised I was on the wrong bus when we headed past the turn off. That's OK, I thought, I can hop off in the neighbouring suburb and get home from there. We turned in the opposite direction from the neighbouring suburb and did a small tour of suburbia. OK, I thought, it's going to head across to the neighbouring suburb after this. But no. We kept heading north. Did another quick tour of suburbia. Headed west. Went to a shopping centre I'd never seen before. By this time it was getting dark. Headed north again. Went past a gorge, through paddocks. Headed east. By this time I'd decided I should probably just stay on the bus, given the odds of me being able to get home otherwise were very low. Given that I didn't actually know where I was and that my phone wasn't working so I couldn't ring Dean to get me. Eventually we headed towards the neighbouring suburb. Another three detours into various parts of suburbia later we reached it. It took 70 minutes to travel 6.44km. I could have walked it faster than that.
*sigh* What really annoyed me about all this is that I would have realised which bus was the one I wanted if they'd had a route map handy. Every bus/tram stop these days seems to have a local area map with all the other bus/tram/train routes highlighted, which is helpful in some ways (OK, that's where the tram is) and not in others (it only covers a couple of hundred metres around that point.) But no, for two bus routes there were no timetables and no route maps, so it was guess them as they come.
This is also not the first time I've had trouble with bus routes. I caught the bus from my old suburb to my new suburb a couple of months ago. I knew the bus went to my new suburb - I'd seen the signs for it - and so I was reasonably confident when I got on. And things went well, right up to the point where we veered off into the night when I wasn't expecting us to.
It turns out that this particular route goes along two directions - half the buses go to my suburb first, then via a couple of other suburbs to their eventual destination, the other half bugger off into nowhere (OK, a different set of suburbs) and then come back via my suburb. And naturally I'd managed to get on one that was heading out into the wilds. So getting home took 40 minutes longer than expected. Again, despite this being a major bus stop at which 5 bus routes stop, there wasn't a timetable or a route map in sight, although there were 5 identical local area maps. Thanks guys. For this particular route I was supposed to magically know that if the bus said "via neighbouring suburb" it went one way and if it didn't it went the other. Seriously. I mean, why wouldn't you have different numbers for the routes? Or put a 'V' and a 'G' after the number to make it easier to know which way the bus is going?
Fuck I'd hate to be a tourist trying to work this crap out in Melbourne - it's hard enough being a local without the superpowers the bus company apparently expects everyone to have.
Edited to add: This is the map of the route I took. I caught this outside Latrobe Uni, which is a fairly major university. I would hate to be trying to get from Latrobe to Greensborough if I were there for a conference or anything, because you can guarantee I'd have taken that same bus - given that it was labelled Greensborough and everything. What a complete joke. You can see that it's basically two routes put together, with no thought to it. *eyeroll*
The first bus trip was great. I caught it with
tra4ce, who got off at Richmond station, but I continued on to the end of the line. Not least because it was the last day of school before holidays the trip was fantastic and quicker than I expected. The second bus trip though... was interesting.
I crossed across to the bus stop on Plenty Rd. Unfortunately I didn't realise that there were two routes who used this stop. So I caught the bus marked with the suburb next to mine. Which I though was the bus I wanted, which goes through my suburb to that suburb. Unfortunately it wasn't. The bus I wanted actually goes to a Far Distant Suburb, via mine and the neighbouring suburb. *sigh* It's one digit different in number, so I didn't pick it up from that either.
I realised I was on the wrong bus when we headed past the turn off. That's OK, I thought, I can hop off in the neighbouring suburb and get home from there. We turned in the opposite direction from the neighbouring suburb and did a small tour of suburbia. OK, I thought, it's going to head across to the neighbouring suburb after this. But no. We kept heading north. Did another quick tour of suburbia. Headed west. Went to a shopping centre I'd never seen before. By this time it was getting dark. Headed north again. Went past a gorge, through paddocks. Headed east. By this time I'd decided I should probably just stay on the bus, given the odds of me being able to get home otherwise were very low. Given that I didn't actually know where I was and that my phone wasn't working so I couldn't ring Dean to get me. Eventually we headed towards the neighbouring suburb. Another three detours into various parts of suburbia later we reached it. It took 70 minutes to travel 6.44km. I could have walked it faster than that.
*sigh* What really annoyed me about all this is that I would have realised which bus was the one I wanted if they'd had a route map handy. Every bus/tram stop these days seems to have a local area map with all the other bus/tram/train routes highlighted, which is helpful in some ways (OK, that's where the tram is) and not in others (it only covers a couple of hundred metres around that point.) But no, for two bus routes there were no timetables and no route maps, so it was guess them as they come.
This is also not the first time I've had trouble with bus routes. I caught the bus from my old suburb to my new suburb a couple of months ago. I knew the bus went to my new suburb - I'd seen the signs for it - and so I was reasonably confident when I got on. And things went well, right up to the point where we veered off into the night when I wasn't expecting us to.
It turns out that this particular route goes along two directions - half the buses go to my suburb first, then via a couple of other suburbs to their eventual destination, the other half bugger off into nowhere (OK, a different set of suburbs) and then come back via my suburb. And naturally I'd managed to get on one that was heading out into the wilds. So getting home took 40 minutes longer than expected. Again, despite this being a major bus stop at which 5 bus routes stop, there wasn't a timetable or a route map in sight, although there were 5 identical local area maps. Thanks guys. For this particular route I was supposed to magically know that if the bus said "via neighbouring suburb" it went one way and if it didn't it went the other. Seriously. I mean, why wouldn't you have different numbers for the routes? Or put a 'V' and a 'G' after the number to make it easier to know which way the bus is going?
Fuck I'd hate to be a tourist trying to work this crap out in Melbourne - it's hard enough being a local without the superpowers the bus company apparently expects everyone to have.
Edited to add: This is the map of the route I took. I caught this outside Latrobe Uni, which is a fairly major university. I would hate to be trying to get from Latrobe to Greensborough if I were there for a conference or anything, because you can guarantee I'd have taken that same bus - given that it was labelled Greensborough and everything. What a complete joke. You can see that it's basically two routes put together, with no thought to it. *eyeroll*
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-23 06:36 am (UTC)Seriously, that sounds bloody horrible. You should write to your local MP to pass on to the Minister. FYIW - I dislike buses intensely too (not allowed to hate them, but I'm sure pleased I don't have to catch them)
Trams, trains - you can see where they go - and their routes don't change an awful lot. We like that!
no subject
Date: 2008-09-23 06:48 am (UTC)What's then confusing is that the final destination is displayed, without any regard to where the hell the damn thing goes in the interim. It'd be like catching a tram labelled West Preston from the CBD and discovering it went via Prahran. (OK, that's a bit extreme. Maybe via Collingwood/Thornbury/Preston then back to West Preston.)
Bah, humbug.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-23 06:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-23 06:50 am (UTC)Again, I'd hate to be at Latrobe Uni at a conference (or Monash actually) and trying to use buses to get somewhere.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-23 08:56 am (UTC)http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Plenty+Road,+VIC,+Australia+(La+Trobe+University)&daddr=Flemington+Dr+to:Redleap+Ave+to:Yan+Yean+Rd+to:Brentwick+Dr+to:Plenty+River+Dr+to:-37.691326,145.101414+to:greensborough&hl=en&geocode=FbJowP0db0GlCCG-ZLtQACfCtg%3BFaoywf0dDHilCA%3BFXA_wf0dhISlCA%3BFSIZwf0d83CmCA%3BFZn6wP0daT6mCA%3BFcrwwP0djSKmCA%3B%3B&mra=dpe&mrcr=1&mrsp=6&sz=15&via=1,2,4,5,6&sll=-37.687454,145.107722&sspn=0.023977,0.05579&ie=UTF8&ll=-37.686945,145.103817&spn=0.095908,0.22316&t=p&z=13
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 01:10 am (UTC)Why they don't just split the route into Northlands SC -Plenty Valley SC and Plenty Valley SC - Greensborough I don't know. At least label it VIA Plenty Valley SC dammit!
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 12:40 am (UTC)I recommend the journey planner in future
http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/
Lee - you're just weird :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 01:07 am (UTC)Which is of course where route maps and appropriately named routes would come in handy.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 01:14 am (UTC)Ahh ... you see, that's what it's called a *planner*
There is no doubt your experience sucked majorly. Write to your MP...really - it's how you get flags on the Westgate!
no subject
Date: 2008-09-24 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-26 06:27 am (UTC)And again, wonderful, assuming you planned the journey.
In which case you probably wouldn't need the route maps and timetables at the stop.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-26 06:28 am (UTC)